Brand & Creative Manager

FAMILY TREE NURSERY | JOB DESCRIPTION Brand & Creative Manager Employment Type : Full Time, Exempt Location : Overland Park, KS – In Person Travel : Regular travel to retail locations Who We Are Family Tree Nursery started in 1964 when the Nelson family decided to take a chance on a small, bankrupt garden center in Overland Park. Six decades later, Family Tree Nursery is one of the top garden centers in the nation — three retail locations, two growing facilities, and a team of passionate horticulturalists who take great pride in what they grow and sell. We are still family-owned and locally operated. We grow a significant portion of what we sell right here in Kansas City. We know our guests by name. And we believe that connecting people to plants, to beauty, and to one another is work worth doing well. We are also in the middle of a meaningful transformation — modernizing our operations, building our team, and putting the structure in place that will carry this business confidently into its next 60 years. This role is critical to that work. The Role The Brand & Creative Manager owns how Family Tree Nursery looks, sounds, and feels across our marketing. You lead the creative direction of the brand and manage the team that brings it to life. For 60 years, Family Tree Nursery has been more than a garden center. We're a place people come for beauty, for expertise, and for a feeling they don't get anywhere else. That feeling is our brand, and this role is responsible for protecting it and carrying it forward as we grow. This is a role for someone who leads with both strategy and craft. Most of your time is spent thinking, directing, and managing: shaping campaign strategy, setting creative direction, and getting the best work out of the team you lead. You'll take the first real swing at campaign strategy and bring it to the Marketing Department Lead to build the final approach together. From there, you lead the creative direction of what that strategy becomes: the look, the feel, the voice, made coherent across all of our channels. The rest of your time, which ebbs and flows with the season, is spent doing the work yourself, whether that's art directing, designing, writing, or jumping in wherever the team needs you. Good creative here is never just pretty. It's strategic. You understand who our guests are, what they want, what they respond to, and what brings them through our doors, and you understand the business objectives behind every campaign. Great work lives where those two meet: creative that speaks to our guests and delivers real results. You hold your team to that standard, and you build a culture that does the same. You'll also work closely with people you don't manage. Some branded work, like email, ecommerce, and other digital assets, will be produced by others on the marketing team, and your job is to set the standard and collaborate, not to stand over their shoulder. You'll have a hand in the in-store and merchandising experience too, but as a partner, not an owner. Your focus stays on marketing. You'll Thrive in This Role If… You have strategic instinct — you're wired to ask "what is this for," not just "is this beautiful." You get satisfaction from work that moves the business, not only work that wins compliments. You lead without ego — getting good work out of others energizes you as much as making it yourself. You hire, develop, and learn from A players to elevate the team and your own capabilities, knowing that great people make everyone around them better. You know your job is to recognize talent, communicate the direction and standard, and let them meet and exceed it. You have taste and range — you have a strong eye and a strong ear, across visuals, voice, and story, and you hold a high bar without being precious about it. You still love the craft — you've moved up into leading, but you haven't lost the itch to get your hands dirty when the season demands it. Jumping into a design file or a piece of copy is a pleasure, not a step down. You're a storyteller at heart — you think in narrative. You know that a brand people love is a brand that tells a good story, and you're drawn to finding and telling Family Tree Nursery's. Every time you walk into Family Tree Nursery, you feel something. You recognize the connection to place, to beauty, to a business that has meant something to this community for 60 years, and you don't just want to shop here. You want to help build what it becomes next. What You'll Do Brand Management Own how Family Tree Nursery looks, sounds, and feels across our marketing — the visual identity, the voice, and the standard everything is held to Build Family Tree Nursery's first brand book — the palette, typography, logo system, voice, and guidelines that give the brand one consistent foundation to build on Keep the brand coherent across every channel, so a social post, an email, a sign, and a campaign all feel like they came from the same place Set clear creative direction the team can execute against, and review their work Protect and evolve the brand as Family Tree Nursery grows, so it stays recognizable without going stale Seasonal Themes & Creative Direction Own Family Tree Nursery's seasonal creative themes — take a direction like "Golden Hour" for fall and build it into a complete look, feel, and voice that carries across social, email, web, and in-store touchpoints Keep every channel telling one story, so the theme feels coherent whether a guest sees it in their inbox, on the website, or walking through the door Partner with merchandising so the creative themes and the product collections line up, and the story the brand tells matches the story on the floor Sit at the table with the Marketing Department Lead and the digital marketing function when an initiative comes together — you owning the look, feel, and theme; digital owning the mechanics across web, email, SMS, and SEO Ground every theme in who our guests are and what the business needs it to do Team Leadership & Development Build, manage, and develop the in-house creative team — hire for the range the work demands, set direction, hold the standard, and get the best work out of the people you lead Direct the social and community content, owning the day-to-day management and the creative quality of what goes out, with the broader social strategy set alongside the Marketing Department Lead Direct graphic design across the brand, including signage, campaign assets, email and digital graphics, merchandise, and print, holding the visual standard and the deadlines Direct photography and video, whether produced in-house or by an outside resource, guiding what gets made and how it looks so the imagery is on-brand and serves the channels it lives on Give clear, direct feedback and create the kind of environment where people grow Traffic & Production Management Manage the flow of creative requests coming into the team — signage, digital and email assets, campaign work, prioritizing against capacity and the bigger picture so the most important work gets done first Balance the workload across the team through the busy season and the slow one, keeping the work flowing and nothing critical falling through the cracks Select, scope, and manage outsourced creative — photographers, freelance designers, and others, deciding who fits and holding them accountable to the work Write clear scopes of work and creative briefs, so vendors know exactly what's expected and by when Manage merchandise and print production from concept through delivery, so quality, timing, and brand consistency all hold up Flag budget needs to the Marketing Department Lead, who owns the spend, and escalate anything contractual or legal Hands-On Creative Roll up your sleeves and make the work yourself when the season calls for it — art direction, photography, design, and copywriting Write and shape brand copy and storytelling across campaigns, channels, and the occasional sign by the front door Jump in wherever the team is stretched, especially through the spring and holiday pushes, without treating it as beneath the role What You Bring 5 years leading brand and creative work, with real wins and losses behind you. We're not looking for someone learning on the job. We want someone who's been through the cycle, made the mistakes, and knows what good looks like Experience managing and developing a creative team. You've directed designers, writers, or other creatives, and you've grown people, not just assigned them work Experience managing a social or content function. You know how to guide that kind of role creatively, hold the quality bar, and manage the day-to-day, even when the broader strategy is set with someone else Strong design and art-direction ability. This is a hands-on role, and you can set direction and execute it Proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite, specifically Illustrator, Photoshop, and Lightroom. You can open a file and do the work yourself, and just as importantly, guide and direct the people who do Strong writing and storytelling. You can find the brand's voice, write in it, and teach it to others, from captions to campaigns and everything in between Experience building or owning brand identity. You've shaped how a brand looks and sounds, and ideally you've built the systems, like guidelines or brand books, that keep it consistent A strategic head for creative. You connect the work to the audience and the business, and you can explain why a creative choice is right, not just that it looks good A grounded creative temperament. You bring genuine joy and pride to the work, and you're the capable, productive creative people actually want to be around, not the precious artist they tiptoe around. You welcome good ideas wherever they come from and know how to bring them to life Additional Information This is a full-time, exempt, salaried role based at our Corporate/Marketing offices, with regular travel to all three retail locations to stay close to the brand, the product, and the guest experience. This role reports to the Marketing Department Lead. Family Tree Nursery's business is seasonal, and marketing moves with it. Spring is our busiest and most demanding window, with the holiday season close behind, and you should expect the hands-on side of this role to pick up in preparation for those stretches. This is a role for someone who wants to build. Family Tree Nursery's marketing is being rebuilt from the ground up, and this is one of the most important seats in that effort: the person who owns how a 60-year-old Kansas City institution looks, sounds, and feels as it steps into its next chapter. If that's the kind of work you've been looking for, we'd love to hear from you. Job descriptions are written for the ideal, and the ideal candidate rarely exists on paper, exactly as described. If this role sounds like you, but you don't check every box, apply anyway. We care far more about your creative judgment, how you lead, and whether you take genuine pride in the work than we do about your resume hitting every line item. Family Tree Nursery is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve and the values we hold. PI447542ee0077-25448-412084545c143e31-5e48-4549-b638-05792d185386